The Listener would not be understood to undervalue the study of genealogy, now followed by so many anxious to learn about the stock from which they spring. It is not only commendable, it is valuable, and its study has been long too delayed. The practical utility of the study is great. Our society is becoming more complex, and the influence of kinsmanship on property is felt more than when the population was small and the ties of consanguinity were readily ascertainable. That there is room for the study from the simple standpoint of the laudable desire to know about one's forbears is evident from the experience of census enumerators, may of whom found that no inconsiderable proportion of the people they called on could not tell where or when one parent was born, and often their ignorance extended to both.
Boston Evening Transcript
Boston, Massachusetts
Monday, April 2, 1888
